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Meet our Summer Interns: Part 1

Chegg introduced our 24 summer interns last month and now we’d like to use the next few posts to showcase who these interns are and why they are excited to be here at Chegg.

In this post you’ll meet Analytics Intern Rishabh Goel from Stanford University, Marketing Intern Andrew Smith from Loyola Marymount University, Business Development/Zinch Marketing Services Intern Annie Mandart from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and Engineering Interns Katherine Anderson, from University of Southern California, and Geoffrey Vedernikoff, from University of Pennsylvania. Enjoy!

We have a wide variety of majors here – how did each of you choose your majors?

Rishabh: My Master’s program is Management Science and Engineering, which is a different mix of different departments at Stanford like math, operations and statistics. My undergrad was in Mechanical Engineering and I just became really interested in the math side of that field s I wanted to do more of that in grad school

Geoffrey: I major in Computer Science and Math. I chose CS because I did a lot of programming in high school and my dad was a computer programmer so I was around it a lot. Plus it includes a lot of math, which I really like. Why I chose my second major is because I wanted to know the theory behind the math that’s included in Computer Science.

Andrew: I’m studying Political Science with a minor in Business Administration.In my eyes, Political Science was the best culmination of philosophy, current events, writing, and history – which was very appealing. I thought it was a good way to be analytical and very much in the know, which is good for a whole host of opportunities in the future.

Katherine: I study Computer Science with a minor in Cinematic Arts. I went into college studying psychology and took a couple classes which I thought were interesting but I just couldn’t see myself pursuing psychology for the rest of my life. I like making things – tangible things – and that wasn’t creative enough for me. I switched to Computer Science because I like technology and it’s challenging and it’s definitely one of the best majors to have right now. As for my minor in Cinematic Arts; I really like animation, art and drawing. USC is great for the arts and love to use those resources there. It’s a cool way to let out my creative side.

Annie: I’m majoring in Writing, Rhetoric, and Women’s Studies and I minor in Public Policy. Earlier I didn’t really know what I wanted to major in so I got involved with our school newspaper, took writing and journalism classes and became the Editor in Chief of the paper my sophomore year. Some of the classes were part of the Women’s Studies and was able to fit enough classes into my schedule so that’s how that part of the major worked out.

How were you introduced to Chegg?

Katherine: I already knew Chegg because they came to our campus a lot, but I’ve also always been interested in education. Last summer I worked at a tech camp for little kids where I taught 7-17 year olds Java, C++, and web design which was really fun. I thought I might like to do something with education. I was interviewing with companies through the KPCB Engineering Fellowship Program and when I saw Chegg as part of the KPCB portfolio companies, I was really excited.

Geoffrey: I heard about Chegg through the KPCB Engineering Fellowship Program, who sponsored PennApps (U Penn’s hackathon) – and when I applied for a fellowship I was introduced to Chegg and began talking with the engineering leadership team here.

Andrew: I was introduced to Chegg my freshman year when I was looking for books. The first semester I bought them from the bookstore and that was a bit unfortunate for the wallet. My roommate told me to check out Chegg so I tried it out and have been a customer ever since.

Why did you choose Chegg for your internship?

Andrew: I was interested in getting involved with social enterprise and non-profit work and I knew that Chegg had its philanthropic arm, Chegg For Good, so I looked into it and found about the internship and was psyched to interview. It’s a young company with so much potential in the field of education. There’s so much to be done as far as technology so I was excited to come on and be a part of something that really is transforming the way we look at learning, studying and higher education in general.

Katherine: I was most interested in the product. Many of the other companies I talked to weren’t as interesting to me.

Rishabh: I really was excited after meeting the team and knew what we were doing on our Analytics team.

What is the main thing you want to get out of your internship?

Annie: I want to learn a lot of different things. I go to a liberal arts college and have a couple majors plus 5 different jobs so I don’t really know what I want to do after college yet. This would give me an opportunity to learn as much as I can to help me figure out what I may want to do. I also want to get a lot of personal growth and just learn what it’s like to have a real job.

Geoffrey: I want to know how production of a code is both written and maintained. I’m getting a lot of visibility into what our engineers are writing and am learning a lot already.

Andrew: Basically as much as I can – I’m like a sponge and want to learn everything. I want to get as much knowledge about marketing in general and specifically about social cause marketing that goes along with all the work that Chegg For Good does.

Has anything surprised you so far about working here?

Annie: How casual it is here! I went out and bought a ton of professional clothes and don’t even need them all. I expected it to be very rigid, corporate and stuffy and that’s so not the case here. It’s very open and laid back and fun.

Andrew: I’ve been invited to a lot of meetings around here so I can really see how marketing works outside of a textbook and classroom – that’s been interesting plus surprising that I’m involved so much as an intern.

Katherine: I just found the skittles today, so that was really cool. Otherwise, it’s been a lot of information.

What cool things have you worked on so far?

Rishabh: I’m working on a couple projects on the supply chain and analytics team with data scientists using machine learning techniques and how to use the data provided to find out more about the performance of our textbook business.

Andrew: I’ve been working with our head of Chegg For Good on our tree planting program – deciding where the next batch of trees are going to go and working on the next contest for a concert (Taylor 2.0 so to speak). I have my hand in a lot of things so far.

Andrew, any early hints on the contest – like who will put on the concert?

Andrew: Nope!

Since we are an education company, focused on learning – are any of you learning anything new these days?

Katherine: I’m trying to teach myself the ukulele. I sang through high school and played piano, violin, even the oboe. I really like music, so here I am trying something new.

Andrew: Well, I just spent a semester abroad in Germany. I’ve been back 3-4 weeks and this was an awesome experience to spend time out of the US and learn about other cultures and countries.

Geoffrey: I’m learning how to drive. I mean I know how to drive but this is my first time having a car for an extended period of time since I don’t need it on campus. So now I’m driving every day – going to San Francisco a lot and learning a whole new area.

What advice do you have for other college students looking for an internship?

Rishabh: Go to career fairs and network with other students to help find out information about internships.

Katherine: Apply early and apply everywhere. Even if you think they may not be interested – put yourself out there.

Annie: I think definitely make a lot of connections and network at your own college and leverage your LinkedIn network too.

Andrew: You need to have persistence and motivation and then you need to leverage your connections. Reach out to people in your network – people are willing to help, but you have to get out there and let them know what you’re doing.